


Full of Pain

by FireSoul



Series: FireSoul's Tumblr Prompts! [10]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Multi, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 23:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16650010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul
Summary: One would think being shot in the stomach and facing death would be enough for Zari to face the feelings she's found herself developing for her best friend. But there are some things she is simply determined to put off.





	Full of Pain

**Author's Note:**

> So Jael prompted me from a new list 3. "Blood" and 11. "War" so I decided to play around with some Ray & Zari! Personally, I'm not sure if I ship them, but I kind of like the idea.

They aren’t going to make it back.

They were never meant to end up on the battlefield.

This is all Zari can think about as Ray races through the midst of D-Day, carrying her bridal style and looking for some form of relative safety. He keeps telling her to hang on, that the team will find them and get them out, but the blood seeping through her army jacket isn’t making that notion very reassuring.

They finally find cover, though that is a loose term, behind a boulder at the edge of the beach and Ray lays her down.

“Stay with me Z,” he pleads with her, and she doesn’t like how his voice sounds like its a million miles away.

She is barely aware of him undoing her jacket until he gasps, and that only makes the sickening feeling of pain in her stomach worse.

“Ok, don’t worry. Don’t worry, you’re gonna be fine.”

He doesn’t even seem to believe his words now, making her suddenly and painfully aware that these could very well be her last few seconds of life. Of all the places she could die she never thought it would be a different century, fighting a war that isn’t hers. If her teeth weren’t too preoccupied with gritting from the pain she might actually laugh at how she’s thinking that despite the bullet to the stomach this isn’t actually so bad. Yes, she is dying a slow and very painful death, but at least she isn’t alone. At least she has Ray.

Of all the people she could have with her on her deathbed, Ray might actually be her first choice. They’ve become close in the last year, especially after Nate left and he started finding himself needing someone else to blow off steam with. She would even go so far as to consider him her best friend, and she loves how even now he’s able to bring a smile to her face, however unintentionally.

She can’t help it, he is just too adorable muttering apologies as he oh-so-carefully lifts the blood-soaked fabric of her undershirts and tucks them up over her chest. She had worn extra layers on this mission, an attempt to hide her figure and disguise herself as a man, but an extra layer of cotton isn’t enough to stop a bullet.

Ray looks at her then, panic in his eyes, because there isn’t anything he can do.

She’s already lost control of her tears, but at the look on his face a loud sob breaks free from her throat. The tears aren’t for her own death, not completely anyway, but for Ray, because she is so sorry.

She’s sorry he has to see this; she’s sorry he isn’t going to be able to sleep tonight because she knows him and she knows he’ll be seeing her pale face and bloodstained clothes in his nightmares. She’s sorry he’s going to feel guilt over not being able to save her; she doesn’t want that for him.

Mustering up what strength she has she raises a shaking hand to his cheek, forcing him to focus on her. She fights through the blood in her throat, the bile, the sheer lack of having a voice, and opens her mouth to speak. She isn’t sure what she’s planning on saying to him exactly, but she supposes it will never matter, because while she may not be totally coherent right now she is still certain nothing but blood comes out of her mouth before the blinding light overtakes her.

* * *

 

Her stomach still hurts, though a lot less severely, when she comes to.

For a moment, she’s shocked the afterlife is real, and even more shocked that there are two people standing in front of her. It’s not that she hasn’t had faith in Munkar and Nakir’s existence throughout her life; it’s just that it seems a little surreal.

This only lasts a second, then the ache in her stomach and the feel of stiff, rubbery plastic underneath her hands begins to ground her and her surroundings come into focus until it hits her that she isn’t dead.

By some miracle she isn’t dead.

As her mind clears she realizes that the two figures standing in front of her aren’t actually the angels she’s always been told will decide her eternal fate, but rather one angel and one demon, of sorts; it’s Ray and Nora.

(She doesn’t actually think of Nora as a demon, she never has, but given the woman’s choice in boyfriend sometimes the joke is just too easy, even in her own mind.)

“Oh thank God,” Nora breathes, “Gideon told us she could fix you but... you were in pretty bad shape.”

“Hm,” Zari hums, “Yeah, still hurts.”

Ray nods, his hand moving to grab hers. “You really had us scared there Z.” He says, his thumb brushing lightly over her knuckles.

“Yeah…” She draws with a smirk, still trying to get over the scare herself. “I’m not that easy to kill.”

Ray chuckles at that, and the next few seconds are silent before he gives her hand a final squeeze and then lets go.

“Well, we’ll let you get some rest.”

With that he leads himself and Nora out, his arm around her waist, and Zari watches them go with her own words replaying in her mind.

_“Yeah,”_ she thinks almost wistfully, _“Still hurts.”_

“Oh no,” she deadpans to herself while settling back into her chair. “Nope, uh-uh, not doing this today, nope.”


End file.
